Clyde Richard "Buddie" Earwood was born in Asheville (Buncombe County), North Carolina in August 1881. Earwood was a laborer in Asheville who frequently ran afoul of the law, including a conviction for selling liquor illegally in October 1912. For this particular crime, Earwood was sentenced to labor on the Buncombe County roads, from which service he was released two months later pending an appeal to the state supreme court. Several other court appearances, for various offenses, occurred in the remaining years of his life. He died at the state hospital in Morganton (Burke County) on May 23, 1930.